Introduction This biodiversity assessment is integrating our knowledge on species, habitats and protected areas into the complex issues of ecosystem management, ecosystem services, human health and wellbeing. Chapter 2 includes an overview of the state of biodiversity in the EU and EEA member countries and an analysis on pressures with a more specific focus on terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiversity ...

The hypothesis of this paper is that the value conferred on nature designates both the "objects of nature" that are the subject of consideration, and the human beings for whom they are intended or who are responsible for them. These designation processes are dynamic and linked, but also interdependent. In order to examine these processes more closely, we make use of the concept of ...

On two counts this is a book which I would not normally have rushed out to buy. I generally dislike books that are compilations of a range of short specialist articles. Few editors are capable of co-ordinating the disparate pieces into one readable and comprehensive whole. My second negative criticism is, ‘not yet another book on global warming’- for surely this is the most over-written and ...

What is citizen science? The European Environment Agency (EEA) uses the following definition of citizen science: 'public involvement in projects or on-going programmes of scientific work by which individual volunteers or networks of volunteers, many of whom may have no specific scientific training, perform or manage research-related tasks such as observation, measurement or computation' ...

Forget laughter: Biodiversity could be the best medicine, at least when it comes to keeping plants healthy. Scientists have long been intrigued by how the number of plant species in an area affects plants’ risk of getting slammed by disease. In general, viewpoints boil down to two competing theories. The first, known as amplification, contends that the more ...

On average, global temperatures on land have risen by 0.8 °C compared with pre‑industrial times. European land areas have warmed up more rapidly, however, increasing by more than 1.2 °C so far (IPCC, 2007), with a further increase of1.0–5.5 °C expected by the end of the 21st century (Christensen et al., 2007). Already southern Europe has experienced extremely dry weather conditions, with ...

The discharge of List 1 bio-accumulated chemicals into the marine environment is one of the most serious forms of pollution that we inflict on our environment. The marine enviroment is responsible for the production of most of our oxygen and reduction of carbon dioxide. Tropical rainforrests and terestial plants are also extremely important in dictating our local climate, however they ...

Biodiversity is generally described at three levels – diversity of ecosystems, diversity of species, and diversity of genes. Biodiversity is both a scientific and a political concept, embracing a trinity of globally-agreed objectives such as conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of biological resources, and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from this use. This paper describes ...

Partnership with the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a global program that since 2000 has provided grants to Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and private sector organizations to help protect the world's biodiversity hotspots, enhanced synergies between the Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development (BCSD) project's aims and CEPF projects in the area through ...

In January 2010, the Commission presented a series of options for an EU biodiversity policy vision and target beyond 2010 (EC, 2010). Recognising the urgent need to reverse the trends of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, on 26 March 2010 the European Council endorsed the long-term biodiversity vision and the 2020 headline target adopted by the Environment Council on 15 March 2010 ...

1. Introduction The “nexus” among water, food and energy has been recognised as one of the most fundamental relationships and challenges for society. Biodiversity and particularly wetland ecosystems are increasingly understood to be at the core of this nexus. Indeed water and wetlands are the foundation for the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of humanity across ...

ABSTRACTThe demands of education reform in many states are constraining the time teachers have to prepare and teach new activities. Therefore, it would behoove environmental educators developing supplemental curricular materials to use their concepts to augment state reform goals. This study suggests that a biodiversity curriculum guide, using the Linking Florida’s Natural Heritage database, ...

After the Rio Conference in 1992, Biodiversity became synonymous with protecting the environment.Bioindication has emerged as useful process for environmental evaluation particularly of the soil, whichis a complex entity able to perform a multitude of key functions, vital for life, such as breathing,assimilating nutrients like carbon and nitrogen, transforming and mineralizing organic materials ...

This paper discusses a key aspect of a sustainable pharmaceutical use of biodiversity: the increased demand of the pharmaceutical industry for biogenetic resources does not result in an increase of the market value of biodiversity. The increasing interest in biogenetic resources by the pharmaceutical industry since the late 1980s has led, among other things, to contracts between large ...

In this paper, we try to evaluate the benefits of biodiversity restoration in the southwest of France, along the Garonne river. This particular riparian forest has been studied extensively by a group of ecologists belonging to the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in Toulouse. A contingent valuation method was applied. A representative sample of 402 persons living in the surrounding ...

Executive summary This report confirms the finding of the EEA's 2009 report 'Progress towards the European 2010 biodiversity target' (EEA, 2009a) that Europe will not achieve its target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010. The present report considers the status and trends of pan-European biodiversity, and the implications of these trends for biodiversity management policy and ...

The European Union (EU) is committed to the protection of 'biological diversity', i.e. the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems1. The EU has been legislating on biodiversity since the ...

Biodiversity is influenced by how different habitats within a given region are connected. A new project in the Alps has made initial progress in establishing an ecological network to promote and enhance biodiversity within Alpine regions. Additionally, the project aims to raise awareness among policymakers of the importance of ecological connectivity. The Alps are the largest natural region left ...

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